April 8, 2008

UNC Pediatrician Being Sued For Sex Abuse Asks North Carolina Medical Board to Suspend His Medical License

Dr. Mel Levine, a doctor and adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine has asked the North Carolina Medical Board to put his medical license to practice medicine in the state in inactive status.

Dr. Levine is currently the defendant in personal injury lawsuits filed against him by several victims that are accusing him of sexual abusing them when they were young boys and patients at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts.

Dr. Levine says he is innocent of the allegations and his attorney says that the request to suspend his license is not an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Levine has also volunteered to stop seeing patients at UNC until the sex abuse allegations are resolved.

Dr. Levine is the author of “A Mind at a Time” and other books about learning disabilities. Prior to transferring to UNC, he was the chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston.

The lawsuit accuses Dr. Levine of sexually abusing a boy from the time he was 8, in 1980, until 1985. He is also accused of sexually abusing six other boys, 5 to 13 years old, from 1967 to 1984. Some of these boys, now men, have also filed lawsuits against Dr. Levine.

A sex abuse lawyer for five of the men says that his clients waited to file their lawsuits because they were ashamed of the abuse or had suppressed the memories for years.

If you or your child was the victim of child sexual abuse by a teacher, doctor, coach, counselor, doctor, camp counselor, therapist, day care worker, a priest, or anyone else, you may be able to sue the perpetrator in civil court for personal injury damages.

A victim of sexual abuse may sustain physical as well as emotional injuries that can take its toll on the life of the victim and their loved ones. One of our North Carolina and South Carolina sexual abuse lawyers would be happy to speak with you to discuss your legal options.

Suit Accuses Pediatrician of Abuse, The New York Times, April 8, 2008

Doctor stops seeing patients after lawsuit, The Daily Tar Heel, April 8, 2008


Related Web Resources:

Biography of Dr. Mel Levine

UNC School of Medicine


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November 16, 2007

North Carolina Family Sues Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Teacher and District for Sex Abuse

A North Carolina family is suing Jimmie Grubbs, a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher and the school district for the sex abuse of their son, who is still a minor.

If you or your child was molested by a teacher, a coach, a priest, a counselor, a therapist, a doctor, or a family member, you may have grounds to file a sex abuse lawsuit against the negligent party.

Sexual abuse can lead to traumatic physical, psychological, and emotional injuries that can take years and lots of therapy to recover from. Depression, social withdrawal, eating disorders, anxiety attacks, sexual problems, and suicide are some of the aftereffects of sexual abuse.

Jimmie Grubbs, a 67-year-old language arts teacher from Huntersville, is serving a 20-year-prison sentence on charges that he molested children from 2002 to 2006. Investigators, however, say they believe that he has been abusing children for decades. According to federal prosecutors, Grubbs took children from North Carolina to South Carolina (Columbia and Myrtle Beach), where he intended to sexually abuse them.

Grubbs was a language arts teacher at Bradley Middle School when he resigned in May 2005.

The Associated Press says that from 2001 to 2006, 123 teachers lost their licenses. 91 of those revocations were due to sexual misconduct. From 2001 to 2005, 2570 educators were investigated on allegations of sexual misconduct. 69% of the cases involved young victims. At least 446 of the sexually abusive teachers molested more than one person.

Unfortunately, the majority of abuse cases involving teachers go unreported because children are too scared to or unable to report that they were abused.

A personal injury lawyer can help you obtain compensation for psychological, physical, and emotional pain and suffering, as well as costs associated with medical expenses, therapy, and any permanent or temporary impairments caused by the abuse.

Teachers are entrusted to ensure that the children who come to them grow as human beings through the education that they receive from them in the classrooms. When that trust is violated and a child is molested or raped by the teacher or becomes sexually involved with the teacher as a result, the teacher can be held civilly liable by the injured party and/or his/her family, as well as criminally liable by the criminal justice system.

Family sues schools, Grubbs, Charlotte.com, November 16, 2007

AP: Sexual Misconduct Plagues U.S. Schools, ABC News.com, October 21, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Sex Abuse by Teachers Said Worse Than Catholic Church, Newsmax.com, April 5, 2004

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

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